Although watching a 50 foot spider may sound like a scene from a 1950's B-Movie fear not as this is more 'art attack' than heart attack. The mechanical arachnid is a £1.5 million piece of street theatre performed by the French artistic group 'La Machine'.
This 50 foot spider moves 2 mph, as you can see from the attached YouTube video. Indeed a wonderful piece of art. This is the world's largest spider.
The 37 tonne construction, named 'La Princesse' (an unlikely name for a 50 foot spider) was made in Nantes, France out of steel and poplar wood by a team of 350 people and is the latest in a series of similar artistic projects created under artist François Delarozière. Delarozière was responsible for unleashing the 42-tonne 'Sultan's Elephant', which brought London streets to a standstill in 2006, and drew crowds estimated at one million people.
'La Princesse' learned to walk this morning after spending two days in a prominent location near Liverpool's Lime Street Station, attached to the side of the vacant office building, Concourse House. The 50 foot spider is said to be headed for various landmarks across the city over the course of the weekend, culminating in what organizers describe as a 'spectacular finish' on Sunday.
The 50 foot spider is operated by twelve members of 'La Machine', who can be seen strapped to its frame. According to the shows producer Helen Marriage: "It has 50 axes of movement so all of it moves as you would expect an insect to move... It is an unfolding story that takes place in all the public spaces in the city using the great buildings as its stage."
The production of this 50 foot spider has been staged as part of Liverpool's '2008 European Capital of Culture' celebrations. Its £1.5 million price tag has been defended by Phil Redmond, who is responsible for the performance as Liverpool Culture Company's artistic director, calling it 'fantastic' and stating: "At £1.5m I think it's actually cheaper than (booking) Macca (Sir Paul McCartney) and it has got us on the front of the South China Morning Post. So it's good value for money."
The UK mental health charity 'Anxiety' however have criticized the project of 50 foot spider, saying that it has "great concern" regarding the potentially traumatic effect of the production upon those with arachnophobia.
